U.S. Department of State Country Reports on Terrorism 2005 - Canada

The governments of the United States and Canada collaborated on a broad array of initiatives, exercises, and joint operations that spanned virtually all agencies and every level of government. At the political level, however, tensions over Iraq and U.S. actions against Canadian citizen terror suspects threatened to disrupt valuable information sharing between the two nations. Terrorists and their supporters have capitalized on liberal Canadian immigration policies to raise funds and undertake other activities. The domestic terror legislation Canada passed after September 11, 2001 was used for only one prosecution and is subject to review in 2006.

U.S.-Canadian counterterrorism cooperation rests on a number of established forums, including the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, the terrorism sub-group of the Cross Border Crime Forum, and the Smart Border Accord. The latter led to an agreement to expand the number of Integrated Border Enforcement Teams (IBETs) covering the border to 15.

Of several exercises held to test the joint U.S.-Canadian response to terrorist attacks, TOPOFF (Top Officials) in April was the most ambitious. This exercise with Canada and the United Kingdom involved more than 8,000 personnel managing scenarios in three countries over five days. For Canada, it constituted a dry run of its recently formulated National Response Plan. Smaller exercises afforded local authorities the opportunity to practice their joint response to terror emergencies.

In Afghanistan, Canada assumed command of the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team and maintained several hundred troops under NATO command. Although Canada chose not to join Operation Iraqi Freedom, it chaired the donors committee of the International Reconstruction Fund Facility for Iraq, pledged over U.S. $240 million for Iraqi reconstruction, police training (through NATO), and elections, and led international monitoring of all three rounds of Iraqi elections. Canada also helped key countries address terrorism and terrorism financing with new counterterrorism capacity-building programs.

The principal threat to the close U.S.-Canadian cooperative relationship remains the fallout from the Arar case. U.S. authorities in 2002 detained dual nationality Canadian-Syrian terrorist suspect Maher Arar in New York and removed him to his native Syria. Arar claimed he was tortured in Syria, triggering a media outcry in Canada that prompted the Canadian Government to review and restrict information-sharing arrangements with the United States. The two governments are working to develop a mechanism to accommodate Canadian concerns while resuming the free flow of counterterrorism information.

The Arar case underscores a greater concern for the United States: the presence in Canada of numerous suspected terrorists and terrorist supporters. Algerian-born Ahmed Ressam, the "millennium bomber" caught attempting to bring bomb-making materials into the United States, was denied asylum in Canada, yet remained in Montreal for seven years and used false identification to obtain a Canadian passport. Other known suspected terrorists in Canada include the following, four of whom are under detention by Canadian law enforcement, and the last released under strict conditions:

  • Mohammed Mahjoub, member of Vanguards of Conquest, a radical wing of Egyptian Islamic Jihad;
  • Mahmud Jaballah, senior member of the Egyptian Islamic terrorist organization al-Jihad and al-Qaida;
  • Hassan Al Merei, suspected al-Qaida member;
  • Mohammed Harkat, suspected al-Qaida member; and
  • Adil Charkaoui, suspected al-Qaida member.

Canada is also home to the Khadr terrorist family. Father Ahmed Said, a member of al-Qaida, was killed by Pakistani security forces in 2003. A son accused of killing a U.S. Army medic and wounding another soldier is being held in Guantanamo. Another son was detained by U.S. forces in Afghanistan and has since returned to Canada. The USG seeks the extradition of a third son for conspiring to kill Americans. A daughter is under investigation by Canadian authorities for terror-related offenses.

Some 38 terrorist groups are officially banned in Canada, but not the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), possibly due to the political weight of the 200,000-strong Tamil community in Canada. The government prohibits known LTTE members from entering Canada, however.

In the wake of September 11, 2001, Canada passed an Antiterrorism Act subject to mandatory periodic reviews and annual reporting on preventive detention provisions. Canada has never used the latter, and has arrested only one person under the Act. The investigative hearing provisions of the Act have been used only once – in the still unresolved Air India case. Nevertheless, critics of the legislation charge that it could be used to target ethnic groups and seek its repeal.

The British Columbia Supreme Court found Sikh separatists Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri not guilty of bombing Toronto-origin Air India Flight 182 and killing 329 people. Outrage from families of the victims triggered a commission of inquiry, which is tasked to examine systemic issues related to Canada's counterterrorism preparedness.

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